Helium Filled Hard Drives Could Turn Western Digital Into a Big Winner

Michael A. Robinson writes: With the commodities boom still in full swing you are probably aware the advantages of owning stocks related to gold, silver or other hard assets.

But when was the last time you heard someone extolling the investment virtues of helium?

And I'm not talking about helium as most folks think of it - in those giant (and comically overpriced) party balloons.

You see, a unit of disk-drive maker Western Digital Corp. (NasdaqGS: WDC) says it's discovered a way to help pump up the corporate computer networks around the world.

It'll debut later this year. And helium will be the active ingredient.

Helios ... the Greek God of High-Tech Profits
Named for the Greek god Helios, helium is created by the sun's nuclear power plant (by fusing hydrogen), and is vital for life on earth.

If you're finding it tough to make the mental jump from Greek gods and life-giving forces to life on the Nasdaq, that's understandable.

So just focus on another "life force". It is the force behind the one key challenge that businesses all around the world confront each and every day.

I'm referring to "Big Data."

A full 90% of the digital data that exists in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.
And with all the new videos, song files, photos, blog posts, business records and Websites that continue to be created, we're producing an additional 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each and every day.

Think about biotech research into gene therapies, social networks with billions of photos, and Web search indexing. Ditto for the millions of electronic transactions that major global retailers conduct per hour.

All those bytes have to sit somewhere.

And Western Digital says it's developed a new device that can really help - with a big assist from helium.

Helium-Filled Drives Are a Blockbuster Breakthrough
The Irvine, Calif.-based company's product is a new disk-drive architecture that's aimed at computer networks and data centers.

Filled with helium gas, the drives can deliver the faster speeds that become more critical each day - and can boost storage capacity by as much as 25% to 50%, Western Digital says.

The firm extolled those features as key to lowering overall ownership costs but declined to estimate how much clients will save by adopting this platform. Western Digital says it will debut the drives by the end of this year.

The helium hard-disk drives - which have already been christened as "Helium HDDs" in tech-sector shorthand - are a major milestone in the rapidly growing field of materials science. It's the first time computer engineers have put helium to this use (conventional hard drives are now filled with air).

And some experts are already predicting a blockbuster breakthrough.

Taking the whole market into account, the tech-oriented research firm IHS predicts sales of 100 million helium-filled hard drives by the end of 2016 - that's just three full years of sales.

Direct comparison of sales rates for new products in the business class computer market are hard to come by. But if the IHS forecast turns out to be correct, then the new helium-drive technology would be a blockbuster - on par with the iPhone.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) released the trend-setting smart phone in June 2007. Since that time, it has remained in the vanguard of the mobile wave and continues to earn rave reviews.

According to a recent story in Popular Science, Apple has sold more than 228 million units of the pioneering smartphone worldwide in the five years since its launch.

Now then, Western Digital almost certainly won't have the whole helium-drive market to itself.

In fact, I would be surprised if archrival Seagate Technology PLC (NasdaqGS: STX) doesn't at least announce a competing design by the end of this year, or in early 2014 at the latest.

After all, the two firms remain in a disk-drive dogfight. With 48% of the hard-drive market, Seagate holds the top spot. But Western Digital is close on its heels, coming in at 45%.

IHS didn't estimate the value of the overall market; but the two firms have total combined sales of roughly $28 billion.

Technological challenges, patent protections and manufacturing costs (the drives are more-complex - and thus more costly - to produce) could augment Western Digital's head start and allow it to extend its lead, at least for a time.
Indeed, IHS believes the new technology could give Western Digital the lift it needs to take over as the industry leader: A Computerworld story that appeared just as we readied this report for you was topped by the headline: "Helium-Filled Hard Drives May Lift WD to the Top."

Right now, that's just conjecture. But here's what we can say: Western Digital's growth strategy is paying off.

That's because the helium array is the brainchild of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, or HGST. Lured by Hitachi's high-tech portfolio, Western Digital bought the firm in March 2011 for $4.3 billion in cash and stock.

Fast-forward two years and we can see that helium-filled hard drives offer several advantages. Because helium is one-seventh the density of air, the gas lessens the drag on the spinning disk stack. That's also true of the arms that position the heads over data tracks.

The format also allows disks to be placed closer together. In this array, seven discs will now fit in the space that formerly held only five. And because helium conducts heat better than air, the new drives will run cooler and emit less noise.

Add it all up, and Western Digital seems to have a real winner on its hands...

As science fiction is transformed into science fact, the world advances at warp speed. And by uncovering the innovations that are fueling that transformation, we can discover and offer to you the cutting-edge opportunities to profit - here in the Era of Radical Change.

Disclaimer: Nothing published by Money Morning should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investent advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication, or after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Money Morning should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

The Market Oracle is a FREE Financial Markets Forecasting & Analysis web-site.(c) 2005-2016 MarketOracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd) - Market Oracle Ltd asserts copyright on all articles authored by our editorial team and all comments posted. Any and all information provided within the web-site, is for general information purposes only and Market Oracle Ltd do not warrant the accuracy, timeliness or suitability of any information provided on this site. nor is or shall be deemed to constitute, financial or any other advice or recommendation by us. and are also not meant to be investment advice or solicitation or recommendation to establish market positions. We do not give investment advice and our comments are an expression of opinion only and should not be construed in any manner whatsoever as recommendations to enter into a market position either stock, option, futures contract, bonds, commodity or any other financial instrument at any time. We recommend that independent professional advice is obtained before you make any investment or trading decisions. By using this site you agree to this sites Terms of Use.
From time to time we promote or endorse certain products / services that we believe are worthy of your time and attention. In return for that endorsement and only in the cases where you purchase directly though us may we be compensated by the producers of those products.